184K SC households received SNAP benefits, more to follow

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - Hundreds of thousands of lower-income South Carolinians who rely on the nation’s largest feeding program to put food on their tables now have that assistance back.

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The Department of Social Services, which manages South Carolina’s SNAP program, said 184,000 households had full November SNAP benefits loaded onto their EBT cards at 2 a.m. Friday, with the rest to follow in the coming days.

“We are business as usual, business as normal. Disbursements are occurring,” DSS Chief External Affairs Officer Connelly-Anne Ragley said.

The 184,000 households who received their full November benefits Friday are those who typically receive the money on their EBT cards between the 1st and the 14th of the month, along with newly approved SNAP households whose benefits were just authorized between Oct. 16 and Nov. 13.

The remaining 80,000 households who receive their monthly benefits between the 15th and the 19th of each month will get the money on their EBT cards on the date they typically do.

“We hope to have everything completed in a timely fashion by Nov. 20, just in time for the holidays,” Ragley said.

Because SNAP is fully funded by the federal government, DSS said it could not disburse November benefits once the government reopened until it received instruction from the US Department of Agriculture.

That came in at noon Thursday, and DSS said right after, it alerted the third-party vendor that loads the benefits onto EBT cards to do that.

“We prepared, we planned, we practiced for the different scenarios, and again, as soon as that magic memo from the US Department of Agriculture came, we were able to click the button and make the announcement public within 90 minutes,” Ragley said.

Ragley said that this week, DSS staff had been working on its contingency plans, if the shutdown had continued, to fully or partially fund SNAP benefits.

Most states did this in some capacity amid a legal back-and-forth with the Trump administration over whether the federal government was required to tap into its reserves to pay for them.

“There were some states that went ahead and paid full benefits and received messaging from the USDA that they were wrong and they should not have done that,” Ragley said. “We had other states that issued partial benefits, and they had errors in their calculations.”

No November benefits had been issued in South Carolina by the time the shutdown ended, with DSS citing the federal guidance it had received, until they resumed Friday.

“This was really just the best option for families so they could receive those full benefits,” Ragley said.

DSS also reminds SNAP recipients to protect their EBT cards like debit cards to prevent fraud by taking precautions like locking EBT cards when they are not in use and changing PINs frequently.

Because of inaction from Congress, there is no way for SNAP benefits that are electronically stolen to be reimbursed.